Childcare

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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Those parents that work please share your childcare arrangements? Do you rely on grandparents, nurseries, nannies, flexible hours etc? Thanks !

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Re: Childcare

When I worked, i had a combination of flexible hours plus a nanny.

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Flexible hours (husband's work) and daycare. In addition to that, we live close to our family, so there is always extra help to get if everything is burning down.

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full time housekeeper/nanny.

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Family members

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First it was my mom.

Now I have a sitter.

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My children are in childcare/preschool.

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i am interested to know the financial burden of having a sitter for those who do not have family help.

is it worth working (for the mum) after you have paid the sitter?
do you save much of your salary ?

also for those who have family to look after the kids. what is your daily routine? do you drop the kid and come and pick it up straight from work?

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Re: Childcare

I used to work full time but half day from the office and rest from home. The nanny stayed at my home with my kids. I did not like the idea of my kids getting up too early to go to daycare, unless it was for school. Also, I liked the idea of them being comfortable in their own home. It only made sense financially with the nanny staying part time and she loved the hours. If I had to stay extra hours occasionally at the office, I paid her extra or my husband helped out sometimes. But basically it was the nanny. The nanny took them out too to parks etc.

The saving bit depends upon your lifestyle and income. It is possible to save but you shall have to cut down on some or a lot of things.

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Re: Childcare

Really depends on your job and your salary. For some people despite it not being financial worth, they can't leave their job due to the nature of their field. For others, financial worth might not be enough motivation to work etc.

Personally, my son is in a private daycare. I chose it purposely because it was few kids pr teacher and for the environment compared to public daycares here. I'm pleased with the daycare setting and he enjoys his time as well - he has grown up so much, learned so much, so overall it has been a positive experience for us. As for the saving part, the cost of the daycare per month is 2.5 % of our total monthly income (we're a two income household), so I don't feel that we have to compromise or cut down on anything since it's pretty much an insignificant amount in the bigger scale. But let's say I was paying 25-30 % for the setup (which I know some people do) then yeah it would be different I think.

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agree very much with @Aaze. it really does depend on your overall earnings and your overall goal for yourself.
ours is also a two income household and full time housekeeper/nanny amounts to just about 8% of our combined monthly income. we live in los angeles ... which has a higher cost of living as compared to other less urban parts of the country.
it hasn't affected our savings at all and what i get for the price (home including bathrooms cleaned daily, beds made, laundry done and folded, dishes done and put away and my baby cared for in my home.) is totally worth it.

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for the first two years we had a nanny, then we put him in a full time daycare for a year and now he is in a pre-k at a islamic school. The school has a after school program as well and we have him until 5:30pm (i pick him up at that time.)

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Ours is a 2 income household right now so its worth it for us.

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I work for my sanity. I would go out of my mind if I was home full time. There isn't much financial incentive at the moment but I love going to work.

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I had help from family (mom, MIL) for the first 3 months only, but I had decent maternity leave so my LO stayed home with me till she was 6 mos old. We started daycare then. Like Hmmmna, I need to work for my own sanity. Having said that though, daycare/nanny is quite expensive, and I am grateful we can afford it. And the fact that my daughter wholeheartedly loves her daycare makes this mommy guilt and stress free :blush:

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kids are in school so they go to after school care for a few hours.

never had any family help, no one was close enough, and we did not ask anyone to come help.

we tried different things over the years

  • a home based day care run by a desi lady, fantastic person, great experience but she was close to my work, was challenging when i was traveling. pros- she was fantastic in every way, cons- she was farther away from home

  • a day care center very close to hoe, which was good for some time- but with mgmt/personnel change we had concerns and left. pros, either my wife or i can fro or pick up since it was close, was always open, had bus service to pick and drop kids to school from the daycare center. was very convenient
    cons- caretakers changed often, and some were great, some were blah

  • an afterschool nanny who would get them from school bring them home or take them out. She was good, but then had some family responsibilities..so could not do it any more.
    Pros- kids were at home, in an environment that was theirs, 1-2 ratio.
    cons- if she was sick, or had an emergency..we needed to scramble for a backup e.g. friend or neighbor

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I work 3 days 12 hr shifts. They stay with my mom 2 days and with mil once a week

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Mine goto mix of sitter/grandparnts.

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what advice would you give for a working woman? In other words, I would want to still work, and contribute to the household expenses (one income is enough for husband and wife, but not for a 3rd member, ie baby).. Yet, I do not want to leave my childcare in daycare. Another option is, to leave the baby at my in laws place but my bhabi already has a toddler, an infant and 2 grown children at home, and mother in law is unfit to help at bhabis home as she is too old and sick herself. hubby thinks leaving the baby with family is the better option cuz its family taking care of it rather than complete strangers, but I am having a hard time of making him see it in a practical way, that bhabi has her plate full. and I would be too worried if my child is properly taken cared for (of course, I cant say that to him without offending him).. And, its not a cost thing either, cuz my brother in law and mother in law would fully expect us to pay my bhabi for taking care of the kid. NOT to mention the drama and them hanging it over our heads for the rest of my life that "I took take care of your kid when you needed it, and therefore now you owe me your life" . yes, they are of that mentality.

my mom is not an option either, as she lives over an hour away, which is too far to drop/pick up everyday, whereas inlaws live within 10 minutes away

any suggestions?

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^^ and then he says, jab ho jaaegi, tab dekhe jaaegi, and I get that, but planning is involved too. Either way I will need to save money etc, and there are other things that need to be considered as well. So I cant take that laid back kind of attitude in having a baby